Understanding delays in publishing interdisciplinary research

With the growing prominence of interdisciplinary research and heightened concerns surrounding extended prepublication timelines, we still lack of understanding regarding the interplay between interdisciplinary level and the duration of the peer review process. This study aims to untangle the relationship between interdisciplinarity and the time manuscripts spend navigating the peer review phase. Leveraging a large-scale bibliometric dataset comprising over three million journal articles, we uncover a robust positive association between paper interdisciplinary level and the duration of the peer review process. This relationship persists across diverse fields, journals with various impacts, and articles with different citation impacts. Moreover, we find that conventionality and reference age partly contribute to such delay. Notably, our investigation indicates that journal editors cannot fully account for the prolonged peer review delays for interdisciplinary research. Furthermore, our results underscore a noteworthy observation: referees generally pose more inquiries toward interdisciplinary endeavors. This is consistent with the fact that scientists submitting interdisciplinary manuscripts may inherently require additional time to adequately address the detailed comments and questions posed by referees. Our results have policy implications for funders, journal editors, and institutions seeking to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary research.